Attempts to create a domain name to handle adult online content
faced an uncertain future on Friday after ICANN abandoned plans to
debate the issue.

The proposal to create a .XXX domain was due to get final approval
at an ICANN board meeting in Vancouver. But ICANN chairman Vint Cerf
surprised the meeting on Thursday by announcing that it had been
removed from the agenda.

This is the second time that ICANN has pushed back plans to approve .XXX, after a delay in September.

ICANN said on Thursday that its governmental advisory committee
needed more time to review a 350-page report into the creation of .XXX.
This report was finished back in August, but only released earlier this
week.

The proposed creation of .XXX has outraged some conservative groups
in the US, who have lobbied the US government — which oversees ICANN
— to block the proposal.

Syracuse University professor Milton Mueller told Reuters that the US has been lobbying other governments to oppose the plan.